Social media is an increasing trend in the 21st century, some may think it is just a fad yet it has actually become a fundamental shift in the way we communicate. The world has become obsessed with anything that is ‘social’ online and this has given marketers access to networks that are instant in response, multimedia rich and ever challenging.

In 2011, social media continued to make a major impact on the promotions of many businesses and brands. Google launched Google+ which cost $500 million in development costs. Twitter and Facebook have become a standard application in most smart phones such as Blackberry and iPhones. Blogging did not ‘die’. Facebook now has over 800 million users and Twitter has over 200 million.

The role of social media in the spreading and sharing of content and improving website and blog search engine optimization has never been more obvious to the professional social media marketer. We will no longer have to search for products and services because they will find us via social media.

“We do not have a choice whether we DO social media, the question is how well we DO it” – Erik Qualman

The following facts have been obtained from the You Tube videos, The Social Media Revolution (http://bit.ly/z0GH7S), which is based on the book Socialnomics by Erik Qualman:

Social Media is about PEOPLE.

50% of the World’s population is under the age of 30 years.

Facebook tops Google for weekly traffic in the US.

Social Media has an impact on our ‘offline’ behaviour. 1 in 5 couples meet online, 3 in 5 gay couples meet online and 1 in 5 divorces are blamed on Facebook.

Kindergartens are no longer using chalkboards instead they are using Apple iPad’s!

Over 37 million people have watched the VW Darth Vader advert yet the child actor had never seen Star Wars.

E-readers outsold traditional books on Christmas 2011.

Wikipedia has over 15 million articles, 78% of them are NOT in English.

If Wikipedia was made into a book it would be 2.25 million pages long and it would take 123 years to read.

10. 90% of all consumers prefer peer recommendations while only 14% trust advertisements.

11. 93% of marketers use Social Media for business.

12. The ROI (Return of Investment) of Social Media means that your business will still exist in 5 years.

13. Social Media has overtaken pornography as the #1 activity on the internet.

14. Only 18% of traditional TV adverts generate a positive ROI.

15. 90% of people will skip adverts on TV between programs.

16. 24 out of the 25 largest newspapers are in decline.

We no longer search for the news because the news finds us. We will no long search for products and services because they will find us via social media. Social Media Marketing allows us to LISTEN FIRST and SELL SECOND.